The EU is accused of having dozens of secret meetings with the tobacco industry while writing the regulations.

I could go on.

But now the controversy has moved to the UK.

A new Freedom of Information request appears to show evidence that the UK Chief Medical Officer Sally Davies tried to stop Public Health England from asking for video opinions from tobacco control professionals.

The Public Health England review concluded e-cigs were 95% safer than tobacco cigarettes.

But it was followed by a disgraceful smear campaign, in which opponents attempted to insinuate the authors were motivated by links to pharmaceutical or tobacco companies.

Noticeably, there was no attack on the actual evidence base!

What do you think? Is there a deliberate attempt to suppress evidence e-cigs are safer than tobacco cigarettes? And if so, why?

Update: Fortunately, there is support in government for e-cigarettes! David Cameron has praised e-cigs, saying they they had helped “over a million” to quit and described e-cigarettes as a “very legitimate path” for smokers. Comment can be seen on BBC IPlayer here at 12:19.

Main blogger at the Ashtray Blog, co-author of a University of Alberta study of "Electronic cigarettes as potential harm reduction products", co-author of the book: "Electronic Cigarettes: What the Experts Say." Works at ecigarettedirect.co.uk.

I guess this isn’t too much of a surprise. E-cigarettes are one of the biggest threats to tobacco companies right now and although more research is needed, it is widely accepted than they do you a lot less damage than smoking does. Wherever there’s money and power, there’s corruption.